Schools urged to seek advice on making most of budgets

As teachers and pupils return for the start of the new academic year, data from the Department for Education reveals that if schools undertook better procurement practices or clubbed together locally, they could on average each plough back up to £100 per pupil to pay for more teaching and learning resources.

The research, extrapolated by the Schools' Buying Club, shows that of the categories reviewed, catering supplies, back office services and facilities management are the biggest areas of waste for schools. SBC calculates that schools across England are overpaying for:

• catering services by £63m*
• back office services by £80m*
• facilities management by £1bn*

Claire Delaney, Managing Director of Schools' Buying Club commented "In these difficult financial times, every penny counts for a school. The figures we have uncovered should concern not only head teachers, but parents and pupils who could gain from better negotiated deals and seeing the impact where it matters - in the classroom. Undertaking proper procurement practices will significantly reduce costs and free up time to focus on ensuring that every child has an improved learning experience.

"With more schools becoming independent from local authority control they have to become more contract savvy and be able to go out and find the best deals to suits their needs. If they do it properly, I really believe they could save tens of thousands of pounds from their overall budget and make a deep impact on teaching and learning."

And that's the aim of this site, to provide practical tools and resources to help schools manage their budget, staffing and curriculum planning, and gives guidance on how to react to changes in funding.

Better procurement practices in schools typically generate up to 20% efficiencies allowing schools to pay for more teachers or much needed equipment and learning resources. From SBC's calculations using the DfE's data, we estimate that schools across England could have made the following savings in their 2010/11 budgets:

Agency supply staff
10% saving, equating to £50m across non -academy primary, special and secondary schools

Admin supplies
15% saving, equating to £57.5m across non-academy primary, special and secondary schools

"As budgets become increasingly restrictive, it's now more important than ever for school leaders to purchase more effectively. I urge heads and governors to seriously consider seeking professional advice as to where money can potentially be freed up. Properly managed and sustainable procurement can make a huge difference and help improve the educational attainment of our children," added Claire.